Sexual Misconduct: US ambassador presents video evidence Thursday

Outgoing United States ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, is expected to produce the video evidence of the alleged sexual misconduct levelled against three Nigerian lawmakers on Thursday.

The Ossai Ossai Committee set up to probe the alleged sexual misconduct involving the three members of the House of Representatives has fixed a meeting with the ambassador for Thursday.

The three lawmakers, Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi); Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom) and Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue), were accused of sexual misconduct by Entwistle in a petition to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, last month.

The ambassador had alleged that the actions of the three lawmakers at the International Visitor Leadership Programme in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, from 7th to 13th April, 2016, brought disrepute to the parliament by soliciting for sex from prostitutes and grabbing hotel housekeeper in a bid to rape.

It was gathered that the Committee had been unable to sit because some of the members of the committee had travelled to perform their religious obligation in Mecca during the Ramadan fast.

It was also gathered that the Committee decided not to extend the invitation to the hotel management as the Ambassador who broke the information through a letter to the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara was expected to have all the documentary evidence against the three accused members.

Apart from the outgoing US Ambassador that is expected at the open public hearing, the Committee also extended invitation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, the three accused lawmakers, the National Human Rights Commission, as well as the other seven members that attended the leadership programme.

Chairman of the Committee, Ossai said that the committee decided not to invite the management of the hotel where the alleged sex misconduct took place because it believed that the Ambassador would come with all the necessary video evidence where the accused committed the action.

He added that the Committee did not carry out any secret investigation because the members involved in the allegation had demanded public investigative hearing for Nigerians to see determine if they were guilty or not.

While inaugurating the Ossai-led Ethics Committee alongside the Foreign Affairs after the House resolution at plenary on Tuesday, 21st June, Dogara had described the assignment as a very serious one where many people had already made their conclusion that the three accused lawmakers were wrong.

However he stated that, the committee should assume the accused are innocent until they are proven guilty by evidence.